If Cornelius had based his decision on the state of Peter at the time the angel appeared to him he would not have gone. For Peter was a Jew, albeit a Christian one, and Jews did not mix with Gentiles. But Cornelius rightly based his decision on what God said, trusting that God had everything under control, which of course He did. We need to learn from this, for we can base our decisions on the way things are, whereas God's instructions to us are based on the way things are and what He is going to do about it, and God does not tell us everything that He is going to do. In this case He was going to change Peter's mind.
Peter went up on the roof of his house to pray. Note that Cornelius' men were already on their way, God often seems to leave things very late! Peter was hungry and about to have something to eat. At this point he fell into a trance and received a vision of all sorts of unclean animals coming down from heaven on a sheet and was told to eat them. Now to eat these animals was forbidden in the Law, hence Peter's reaction, but the voice told him not to call anything unclean that God has made pure. This happened three times, just to make sure that Peter got the message.
So we see here that God is able to change our prejudices. Now Peter's attitudes were based on the Law and the way he had been brought up. They weren't wrong, but they needed to change. God is able to change our minds and our attitudes.
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